Page 160 of Valor

Even as pregnant as she is, the woman doesn’t slow down. She and Silas are having their fourth child together, fifth overall, as they’re also raising his sister’s daughter. His sister passed quite a few years ago, and Silas took the girl in and has raised her as his own ever since.

“I’ve got it. Maybe you should sit down.”

“Nah, I can sit when you guys are in the air. Right now, I need to make sure everything gets on that plane.” She checks the clipboard in her hand.

“This is the rest of it,” Gibson says as he carries a box of gauze and other medical supplies toward the plane. Wearing a T-shirt and jeans, a baseball cap low on his head, my husband is a wondrous sight to behold.

Husband.

I grin. This lovely trip to a small island right off the coast of Africa, where Bianca and Silas opened a hospital and a church, is our honeymoon. Something I’m sure most thought I was crazy for. But helping people is what I want to do. No matter what stage of my life I’m in.

So, with Peter Lenson acting as temporary Sheriff, Gibson and I are heading off to spend three weeks in an island village off the coast of Africa, helping in the hospital that Silas and Bianca started a few years ago.

It’s going to be amazing, and I seriously cannot wait. “Are you ready too, girl?” I ask, petting Lima on the top of her head. The one-year-old German shepherd has been my shadow since the moment we were introduced. Now fully trained, she’s my protector and the best friend anyone could ever ask for.

Gibson comes up to my side and presses a kiss to the top of my head.

Well, second-best friend.

Okay, maybe tied for first place.

“You’ll want this,” Silas says as he offers a tactical duffel bag to Gibson. “There hasn’t been any hostile movement over there in years, but it’s never a bad idea to be prepared.”

“Got it, thanks.” Gibson slings it over his shoulder. “Anything else we should know?”

“Abana will fill you in on anything else. She’s been head of that hospital since we opened its doors.”

“I’ve talked to her a few times over email. She seems great.”

“She is,” Bianca tells me, a proud smile on her face. “We’ve become quite close, and I’m relatively jealous you get to see her and I don’t.”

“Soon, my love,” Silas says with a smile as he wraps his arms around Bianca’s shoulders.

“True. Then we’ll have an entire soccer team to take with us.” She rests her hands on her stomach.

I close the distance between me and Bianca and wrap my arms around her. “We’ll see you guys in three weeks.”

“Have a safe flight. And thanks so much for doing this.” Bianca squeezes me back, then releases me so I can hug Silas.

My cousin, once averse to physical contact of any kind, wraps me in a warm embrace. “See you later, cousin. Stay safe.”

“You guys too.” I pull back as Bianca hugs Gibson, then he shakes Silas’s hand.

“Are you ready to go?” The pilot, Jesper Michaels, a man my brothers have known for quite a few years, calls out as he steps off the private plane.

“We are,” I call back, then take Gibson’s hand. “Ready?”

“Let’s do this.”

With one final smile and wave at Silas and Bianca, we climb the steps toward the plane, Lima bounding happily behind us.

“Should be relatively easy flying,” Jesper says. “Looks like clear weather.”

“Glad to hear it.” I take a seat at the window and buckle myself in as Lima lies by my feet. Gibson takes a seat beside me and buckles his seatbelt, then reaches over and takes my hand.

“Are you excited?” he asks. “You look excited.”

“I am. Are you?”

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